SMS Marketing: Compliance

SMS is a simple, effective way to share updates, promotions, and reminders. Messages are delivered quickly and are more likely to be seen, helping you stay connected with your audience and keep them informed. When sending SMS marketing campaigns within the UK, you must make sure you:

• Obtain explicit consent
• Provide a simple, accessible and free opt-out mechanism on every message you send
• Clearly identify yourself as the sender in each message

UK Data and Privacy Laws

Before sending SMS marketing messages, make sure you understand the requirements of the UK’s data and privacy laws, including:

• UK GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
• PECR (Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations)

These rules help protect people’s personal data and set clear expectations for how and when you can contact them. Following these guidelines helps you build trust with your audience, avoid compliance risks, and ensure your messages are both welcome and effective.

SMS Marketing Consent via Transpond

In line with UK regulations, you must obtain consent from your contacts before engaging in SMS marketing. With Transpond, you can record consent for SMS marketing when collecting subscribers via your Signup Forms.

In addition to recording consent, it is considered good practice to detail the nature and frequency of SMS messages a contact can expect to receive, as well as a link to your privacy policy (if available).

How to record SMS Marketing Consent via a Signup Form

The first step is to create a custom field to record if a contact has given consent to SMS Marketing. To do this:

1. Click Contacts in the top navigation bar of Transpond
2. Choose All Contacts > Fields
3. Click + Add a Field

4. Complete the field details:

   - Give the field a meaningful name along the lines of SMS Opt-In or SMS Consent Given

   - For the field type, select TRUE/FALSE

5. Select + Add Custom Field to add the new field to Transpond.

Once the custom field has been created, you need to create a new signup form or edit an existing one.

1. When viewing the edit form screen, from the Elements menu on the left, drag a new checkbox field onto the form in the preferred position.
2. In the Content tab for the checkbox, under Field, select the TRUE/FALSE custom field you created in the steps above and then edit the label text.

3. To add information on the nature and frequency of SMS messages a contact can expect to receive, drag a text field from the Elements menu on the left of the screen and enter the details.

How do Contacts opt out of SMS Marketing?

On every SMS message you send via Transpond, an opt-out link will be automatically added.

If a contact decides they no longer wish to receive SMS marketing from your Organization, they can tap the link in the text, which will take them to a webpage. Here, they can enter their phone number to opt out.

SMS Marketing Quiet Hours

Within the UK, SMS marketing messages can be sent between 9 am and 8 pm. Outside this time is considered "Quiet Hours".

In order to be compliant, you must not send during quiet hours. Transpond helps you with this compliance by not allowing campaigns to be scheduled or started before 9 am or after 8 pm.

How to set the SMS Marketing 'From Name'

To set a default 'From Name' for your SMS Marketing in Transpond:

1. Click on your profile image in the top right corner of the screen > Account Settings > then click the SMS tab.
2. Here, you can enter your default name. This should clearly identify your organisation as the sender of the SMS messages. The name must be 3-11 characters long and have no spaces.